Japanese Cold Remedies

I lived with my grandmother when I was a child. So I learned many things other people who grew up in nuclear families didn’t learn. Among them, there are Japanese cold remedies. I will share two different unique remedies with you.

First one is grilled scallion wrap. Japanese scallions were diagonally sliced and grilled in a fish grill. Then wrap them in a cloth or gauze, and tie it around the neck. It’s a kind of warm compress for the neck.

Japanese scallions are larger than scallions I see in the United States, but they are not as stout as leeks. As I can’t find them easily here, I substituted with regular scallions. I used 4 of them. I put the scallions in oven toaster until they soften a bit and the color changes. They start to release the smell, when they are ready.

Another cold remedy is tamagozake, egg sake in English. It’s a kind of eggnog made of sake. Wrap the scallions around my neck and drink tamagozake… I totally feel at home.